The History of Middle-earth (chibi version) - Part 139 - Clan Finwë

Lots more characters for you all to have to remember! \o/ Also lots of cute baby Elves.

I've designed Fingolfin's and Finarfin's children to be wearing their House shield on their chests (Except Galadriel who has it on her sash at her waist). Other distinguishing features are that Turgon and Aredhel both wear white, Finrod Felagund wears a miner's helmet, and (spoilers) you probably don't have to memorise what Argon looks like. :)

Part 139: Clan Finwë

Next time: Part 140: Time's up

Chibis by tektek.org

Original story by and copyright to J R R Tolkien, ed. C Tolkien: Primarily based on the Silmarillion, but incorporating ideas from the 12-volume History of Middle Earth series.

Awww cute little Galadriel, I imagine her saying "I'm going to be famous some day!" in the most adorable toddler talk. And then doing something really creepy such as staring at somebody and telling them what they are thinking or when they are going to die. And Finrod with his helmet ^-^ And all the other little Elf children.

Feanor needs to shut up before I slap him. Thankfully Nerdanel is still awesome, wonder if this is the beginning of the end for those two? And I also love Earwen, hybrid vigour, ha! Love it! I guess it is one way to explain Finrod and Galadriel.

In the essay 'Osanwe-kenta' Tolkien made the following points about telepathy in Middle-earth:

1. It's the natural form of communication between discorporate spirits (such as the Valar in their native form).

2. It's possible for incarnate spirits to use telepathy as well, but a lot harder because their physical bodies create 'interference', as it were. Speech and language, not direct mind-to-mind communication, are the natural mode for incarnate beings.

3. Several factors can make that interference easier to overcome:

a. If someone has a very strong will and powerful mind. Galadriel obviously scores high points here. So do the Valar.

b. If the people trying to use telepathy are closely related by blood, or their minds are very in-tune because they're friends or lovers.

c. If someone has legitimate authority, which is recognised and accepted by the person they'e trying to communicate with. Again, this mainly refers to the Valar; but Galadriel would also find it easier to speak telepathically with anyone who willingly accepted her leadership over them.

I'd also note that someone with a lot of empathy and understanding - Galadriel again - might be able to make more sense of the information they picked up by telepathy, while to someone less experienced it might be just a jumble of muddled information.

4. It's impossible - not just difficult but literally impossible - for anyone short of Eru Ilúvatar himself to read the mind of someone who's unwilling to allow this. Not even Melkor in all his might is capable of it. (And equally, the other Valar are unable to read Melkor's mind. It would have saved a lot of trouble if they could...)

However, someone who's powerful and skilled in osanwë can often pick up a lot of information from people who aren't actively resisting having their mind read - which is what I assume Galadriel does. Melkor, equally, can pick up information from people's minds by trickery and misdirection even when he couldn't do it by brute force.

Galadriel: "Hey, look, Uncle Fëanor, I'm gonna be in six movies when I grow up! Well, really four movies but one of them got turned into three so people could make lots of money. How many movies are YOU gonna be in, Uncle Fëanor?"